SC House votes to cut funding to public university for homosexul literature

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Re: SC House votes to cut funding to public university for homosexul literature

Originally Posted by Goshin

you clearly have no concept of what censorship is. Spend a few years in Saudi Arabia or Iran, that will clear it right up.

Just because its not done at gun point or with the threat of jail doesn't mean its not censorship. It may be a backhanded version of it, but its still censorship. National Coalition Against Censorship, the ACLU of South Carolina, the American Association of University Professors, the Modern Language Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, the Association of American Publishers, the National Council of Teachers of English and the American Library Association all agree with that view since they wrote a letter to the South Carolina Finance Committee to that effect.

What you're saying is kind of like a gun control proponent saying "Oh, bans on assault rifles isn't an infringement on the right to bear arms. You clearly haven't been to Japan. That's infringement!".

Re: SC House votes to cut funding to public university for homosexul literature

Originally Posted by tres borrachos

When my kids go to college, my husband & I will be paying. We will decide what's appropriate. I have no interest in other adults providing my children with graphic content and pictures. They can provide that to their kids all day long.

That's all well and good and I support your ability to do that 100%. That's your right. However, I don't support an overbearing State government cutting money from a public school for developing a curriculum that includes LGBT issues or allowing LGBT rights events. As others have said, the "sex scene" in the book is an picture drawn in ink with only a little color. It's less suggestive than a commercial you see on TV. This is an award winning piece of work about identity and the effect of intolerance, not a porno mag. Hell, the State University teaches a class on 50 Shades of Grey here and no one is up in arms over that. This is political grandstanding to hype up the conservative base against the scary "liberal elite" trying to brainwash your kids into being gay and nothing more. What do you think the result of these threats to cut funding will be? I don't want my state's schools scared to let their students express themselves on their campus, display art with non-traditional things, or let their teachers discuss non-traditional topics for fear of having to fire people or raise tuition.

Re: SC House votes to cut funding to public university for homosexul literature

Originally Posted by Henrin

It's a public university, so they can censor anything they please. If you don't want the government censoring what universities do then a good start would be to stop with the nonsense of public universities in the first place.

No they can't. Just like they can't make public schools not teach evolution which our state most assuredly tried.

Re: SC House votes to cut funding to public university for homosexul literature

Here's an article that has a little more accurate information since it was local.

So these students were all given the book, but only a small minority of them enrolled in a certain class had to read it. It was required reading for that one class and if you didn't want to read it you could drop the class and take another one. There is no precedent in college to choose not to do assignments in a class because they offend you. You do them, you don't do them and fail, or you don't take that class. Those are your options in every class. You HAVE to read Beowulf in English 101. You HAVE to cut up a dead cat in Biology 101. You HAVE to read a short graphic novels that has 2 gay characters in this particular class. You don't have to agree with it. You can get mad as hell if you want. You can spew hateful things in the in-class discussion and write about how you think gays are monsters in your essay..but you have to read it to pass that class. That class you signed up for of your own volition in a college you chose of your own volition that you can choose to leave at any time.

Re: SC House votes to cut funding to public university for homosexul literature

Originally Posted by vash1012

No they can't. Just like they can't make public schools not teach evolution which our state most assuredly tried.

Public universities are funded and operated by the state. They can very easily dictate what is taught in those halls. The state didn't like the class, and since it is their school, they shut it down. If you support the existence of public universities this is something you better get used to accepting.

Re: SC House votes to cut funding to public university for homosexul literature

Here's an article that has a little more accurate information since it was local.

So these students were all given the book, but only a small minority of them enrolled in a certain class had to read it. It was required reading for that one class and if you didn't want to read it you could drop the class and take another one. There is no precedent in college to choose not to do assignments in a class because they offend you. You do them, you don't do them and fail, or you don't take that class. Those are your options in every class. You HAVE to read Beowulf in English 101. You HAVE to cut up a dead cat in Biology 101. You HAVE to read a short graphic novels that has 2 gay characters in this particular class. You don't have to agree with it. You can get mad as hell if you want. You can spew hateful things in the in-class discussion and write about how you think gays are monsters in your essay..but you have to read it to pass that class. That class you signed up for of your own volition in a college you chose of your own volition that you can choose to leave at any time.

depends on the class and if it is a manditory class that all kids have to take at some point. if the book was just for one class then only the students taking the class would need to buy it. there is no reason to waste student money supplying a book to all students if all students didn't need it.

not all students signed up for the class or the class has only so many students in it so why waste money paying for a book that only a small amount are going to use?
couldn't have anything to do with indoctrination now could it?

the only person that made out like a bandit was the author of the book and the thousands of books the college's bought.

Re: SC House votes to cut funding to public university for homosexul literature

Originally Posted by Henrin

Public universities are funded and operated by the state. They can very easily dictate what is taught in those halls. The state didn't like the class, and since it is their school, they shut it down. If you support the existence of public universities this is something you better get used to accepting.

The State can influence what is taught in the schools, sure, so long as it is secular. The State government, being a secular institution that is bound by separation of church and state, can't force schools to teach intelligent design and creationism because that is promoting a particular religion. This was upheld in Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area School District in 2005 in federal court. It can't bar schools from teaching evolution as was found unconstitutional in Epperson v. Arkansas in 1968. These decisions were all based on the first amendment. There is already a precedent that States have limitations on what they can direct a school to teach or not teach so NO they cannot very easily dictate was is taught in those schools. The difference here is that they aren't making it illegal. They are just discouraging it by cutting funds and it is not with an express intent to favor one religion over another, but there is an argument that what the State is doing here is possibly unconstitutional.

Re: SC House votes to cut funding to public university for homosexul literature

Originally Posted by vash1012

The State can influence what is taught in the schools, sure, so long as it is secular. The State government, being a secular institution that is bound by separation of church and state, can't force schools to teach intelligent design and creationism because that is promoting a particular religion. This was upheld in Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area School District in 2005 in federal court. It can't bar schools from teaching evolution as was found unconstitutional in Epperson v. Arkansas in 1968. These decisions were all based on the first amendment. There is already a precedent that States have limitations on what they can direct a school to teach or not teach so NO they cannot very easily dictate was is taught in those schools. The difference here is that they aren't making it illegal. They are just discouraging it by cutting funds and it is not with an express intent to favor one religion over another, but there is an argument that what the State is doing here is possibly unconstitutional.

Well, make an argument as to why the Constitution prohibits the government from cutting the funding of the class. I can't see how you are going to do that.